Actor Peter Keleghan explores his heritage in Once An Immigrant

Actor Peter Keleghan’s Once An Immigrant follows his journey to Ireland. (CBC)

Is it possible for immigrants to let go of the country where they have come from and fully embrace the one they have come to?

That’s the question Peter Keleghan set out to explore when the award-winning Canadian actor and his big sister, Teresa, decided to take their mother back to her birthplace in Ireland for her 90th birthday last June.

Keleghan’s parents moved to Canada from England in 1957 and both describe their adopted homeland as the world’s best country. Yet his mother has refused to become a citizen while his father never looks back.

Keleghan, a TV stalwart with roles in numerous Canadian series as well as the soap opera General Hospital, invited a group of close friends for dinner one summer evening last year — all first-generation children of immigrant parents — and discovered the “ubiquitous” nature of Canada’s immigrant stories.

The candid and unscripted discussions of their experiences have formed the backdrop of the Montreal-born actor’s documentary Once An Immigrant, which premieres Thursday at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV’s Firsthand.

“Where people came from is not as good as what they have come to. Behind it, we all want to make Canada better, more progressive and inclusive,” said Keleghan, a five-time Gemini Award winner, in an interview. “This is a love story for Canada.”

The trip “home” was emotional for Rita Keleghan, who was dismayed to see the historic post office in her hometown taken up by a McDonald’s restaurant, and the place she grew up in cut through by a new highway.

During the two weeks in Ireland, she caught up with her two sisters, Marie and Joan, as well as their baby brother, Frank, and his wife, Lil, to reminisce about the Ireland she left behind more than six decades ago.

Keleghan learned that Rita kept her Irish accent and refused to take Canadian citizenship in defiance against the British for their poor treatment of the Irish in the past.

“I would not pledge allegiance to the Queen. If you put a Canadian on the bill tomorrow instead of the Queen, I’m in there,” Rita said on camera. “I will go in and take my citizenship.”

By contrast, Keleghan’s father, Stanislaw Krakus, who was interned by the Nazis as a 10-year-old boy in hard-labour camps in Poland, claimed his Canadian citizenship as soon as he met the requirements. And it was the senior Krakus who encouraged his son to take up the less “foreign sounding” last name Keleghan to pursue an acting career.

A big challenge of doing documentary is the unscripted nature of the film, said the movie’s director, Michael McNamara of Markham Street Films.

“You just have to find those situations where you hope interesting things will happen,” said McNamara, who traces his Irish heritage to his grandparents. “There were constant surprises and we learned so much about the immigrant experience that I didn’t understand before,”

One of those surprises happened during Rita’s visit to her old stone schoolhouse, where she had an unexpected reunion with 93-year-old childhood friend Sally Hart. Later, after attending a service at a local church, she found the record of her baptism.

Keleghan also interviewed a young woman who recently returned to Ireland after going to school in Canada, reflecting on the most recent wave of migration after the Celtic Tiger’s economy crashed in the late 2000s.

A first-generation Greek Canadian and one of Keleghan’s dinner guests, actress Maria Vacratsis said it’s important to tell the stories of immigrants so their children won’t forget where they came from.

“Every time when we have a whole new wave of immigration to Canada, we see a backlash — sometimes from the actual immigrants who forget their heritage, turn around and ask what these people are doing here. It just never ends,” said Vacratsis, who has had roles in Degrassi: The Next Generation and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

“The more we know about ourselves and others, the more empathetic we can be. Otherwise, you lose your empathy. As Canadians, I hope we could keep that.”

The 44-minute documentary may not answer all the questions Keleghan raised at the onset of the journey, but it offers an undisputed conclusion.

“The truth is many of my first-generation Canadian immigrant friends and I have a lot to be thankful for,” Keleghan says toward the end of the film, co-written by Steve Lucas. “Maybe, this is how it works. It just takes a few generations for people to get comfortable here.”

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Founded in 2004, the magazine began with a mandate to "inform, educate and motivate" immigrants to Canada and assist them in their new found journey. Since then, the magazine has grown to be the only national multi-platform brand for all immigrants to Canada, on topics from careers to education to settlement.
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